Page 110 of Slapshot Obsession
Taryn shakes her head, but her eyes fill with tears. “I’m fine. My clothes are in way worse shape than the rest of me.” When she cups my jaw, her hand is shaking. “You came. I knew you would.”
As Colsen comes to wrap our girl into his own embrace, I go check on my buddy and Jodie.
Taryn’s bestie is strapped to a gurney right outside one of the three ambulances with a paramedic checking her vitals.
Nash is an entirely different matter. “I don’t need to go to the hospital.” He’s sitting up on another gurney and he’s fighting with the unlucky paramedics who are trying to do their jobs. “I’m just sore. Give me a second and I can walk. I don’t need?—”
“Sir, your arms and shoulders were under extreme stress. We need to check you for any permanent damage?—”
“The team’s medical staff can do that tomorrow. I swear this is nothing compared to some of the hits I’ve taken on the ice. A good night's sleep, a couple of painkillers and a massage by one of our PTs and I’ll be brand spanking new.”
The paramedic is at the end of her rope when Taryn approaches us, flanked by Colsen and Mack.
“Nash, I’d feel better if you got checked. Both you and Jo-Jo.”
“Trouble.” His gravelly voice trembles ever so slightly. “Are you ok?”
She cups his jaw. “Physically I’m totally unharmed. Mentally… it’ll take me a while to process what just happened.”
Nash nods and chokes in a futile attempt to fight the tears that well in his eyes. “I thought he was gonna kill you. I thought…”
Taryn rests her forehead against his. “I knew Tucker and Colsen would come for us. I’m just glad that they did before it was too late.”
“You did?” He sounds disoriented. “How?”
Taryn explains how she got a message from Jodie. “It said that Carole and Lexi wanted to see me and Jodie in the locker room. So I ran, thinking we were probably being cut. But as I walked to the arena, I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t right. So I called Tucker just as I entered the locker room.”
“You did?” Nash’s eyes move from Taryn to me.
“Yeah. And she called me through this app I had just installed on her new phone just in case.”
Nash begins to figure out what happened. “Something like Find My Phone?”
I smile. “Yeah. It’s designed with extra safety features. It allows you to share your location, but if you make a phone call through it, it also records everything on both phones.”
Colsen claps me on the shoulder. “When Tucker realized what was happening, he came to me and Mack for help. I had to threaten bodily harm and to call Coach and his mom to convince him to call the sheriff rather than storming the arena. All it took was getting the deputy on duty to listen in, and they sent a squad straight away.”
“It didn’t feel verystraightawayto me,” Nash grumbles.
I can’t blame him. “It didn’t feel fast enough to me either, bro, believe me.”
Mack backs Colsen on this. “Trust me, waiting for the police was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do. But if we had made any mistakes that could have caused one of you to get hurt, we would have never forgiven ourselves.”
“Yeah, I know.” I roll my eyes, but deep down, I know my friends are right. “So now, stop being a gigantic pain in our asses and go to the hospital like Taryn wants. OrIam going to call Coach.”
Before Nash can argue any more, Taryn promises to go with him. “I want to make sure you and Jodie are ok. Then I need a hot shower and a change of clothes.” She says, pointing to her hoodie. “That bastard cut my favorite tank top.”
Someone clears their throat behind us. “After you get checked, ma’am, we need to take your statement. From all the parties involved. We have Deputy Sheriff Moss from Hemlock Beach, South Carolina, on standby to join us on a conference call, and he’s going to be on the first flight here tomorrow.”
I’ve known Sheriff Hartman, Kirk Pullin’s successor, since I was in diapers. He used to play high school hockey with my dad. “Phil, can that wait until tomorrow? My girl and my friends have been through a lot.”
“We can. But I would prefer to get started tonight, if possible.”
Taryn looks worried. “Is there going to be a trial?”
The sheriff’s tone is kind, almost paternal. “I don’t know, Miss Beets. I believe we have our perp in custody. As of right now, you aren’t under arrest.”
She chews on her bottom lip. “I know, but… we took the murder weapon, and we covered the body.”
